


takotsubo

by keouil



Series: all that we hope to be [3]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Gen, Pre-Kannabi Bridge Mission, Team Minato-centric, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-17
Updated: 2020-10-17
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:47:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,361
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27064396
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/keouil/pseuds/keouil
Summary: "what would you do if i died today?"or, rin is twelve when she asks but fourteen when she knows.
Relationships: Hatake Kakashi & Nohara Rin & Uchiha Obito, Hatake Kakashi/Uchiha Obito
Series: all that we hope to be [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1954069
Kudos: 44





	takotsubo

**Author's Note:**

> _takotsubo cardiomyopathy_ – also known as broken heart syndrome

for a moment, no one says anything.

kakashi looks up from the ninja scroll he was reading to look directly at the source of the voice, trying to gauge whether he heard it wrong. obito was already staring, question or no question.

there they were, all three of them, knee-deep in minato-sensei’s private collection of readings at the dead of night. they had to leave for an early mission the next morning, but knowing ⅓ of their team, one would probably have slept in and arrive half an hour after the agreed-upon time. so they decided to just spend the night going over the mission brief then leave for the gate together.

this was a common occurrence in most genin teams, when inexperienced youngsters preferred to do anything and everything with their teammates rather than do it all alone and bear the burden of sole failure should things go wrong. this team building activity of sorts was actively encouraged by sandaime himself.

* * *

_“what would you do if i died today?”_

there it was again. 

this time clearer, sharper with a certain hint of edge he couldn’t place. this time kakashi couldn’t chalk it up to faulty hearing. 

rin really did seem to form those words and they really did seem to pass her lips, because now she was looking at them expectantly. she might as well have asked about the weather or common shinobi injuries, it wouldn’t have made a difference with the way she asked it.

obito was first to break the silence. 

“what?”

she shakes her head and clicks her tongue. narrowing her eyes at the supposedly great uchihas and hatakes with stellar mastery of all senses, “don’t make me say it again. i know you heard me the first time.”

kakashi catches her knowing look and bites back the instinct to reply with something even snarkier. he manages with barely restrained disconcertment, “why are you asking that all of a sudden?”

obito was quick to side with him, like he always did when it came to any and all matters about her. nodding his head with such fervour he was going to snap it in two any moment, the younger of the two pins him with an annoyed glare that, unsurprisingly, works.

now back to the question.

“is this a medic thing? did someone die on you today?”

“jesus, kakashi,” rin breathes out. “you’d think you’d be more subtle with things like that. you really need to work on your people skills more.”

an attempt at diversion, albeit a little obvious – but he wasn’t going to take the bait. 

rin rarely ever said things so casually, never was one to dangle between the tips of sarcasm or teasing. she said things as they were, but always with utmost sincerity and genuine intent. 

as if to prove this theory right, she quickly adds, “ _no._ there were some anbu, but they were practically dead the moment when they were brought in. that’s not the point – answer the question.”

kakashi stared at her in disbelief.

he was trying to gauge her intention at the horror of their small talk today and her unusual persistence. in an action not at all like him, he turns to obito for some enlightenment. the same boy he noticed was also being uncharacteristically silent throughout this whole conversation. 

“oy.”

“what.”

“you heard her.”

“and?”

“so answer her.”

kakashi glares at him then, trying to inject as much venom in his eyes that basically screamed _this is your territory_ and _do something about it_ at the same time.

obito huffs and sulks further. he manages to be silent for a record-breaking sixty seconds before he all but explodes in a blur of barely coherent words -

_“are you dying?! cause i thought about it, and i know it’s only been like two seconds since you asked, but i thought about it and all i can think of is maybe it’s your heart? when we were young you said you had a problem with it, but don’t worry, we can have it fixed, i’m sure minato-sensei knows someone who knows someone –”_

rin raises her hand, effectively shutting him up and forcing him to shift his focus to something else which wasn’t his spiralling thoughts.

another basic diversion tactic, in fact probably the most unimaginative and see-through one ever – yet obito is easily hooked, lined, sinkered.

she takes his hand and leans just a little closer; a margin, really, certainly not enough to cause the blushing tomato buffoon he becomes in return. 

“i’m not dying. i just thought about it suddenly the other day, what would happen if any of us went out but never returned.”

obito blinks.

then frowns. “what the hell, rin, that’s so morbid. i know you work in a hospital and all, but maybe try visiting the baby ward once in awhile?”

“what would she even do there?” kakashi raises his brow.

obito scoffs and says in a deadpan tone,“uh i don’t know, look at tiny adorable children and be hopeful about life?”

kakashi moves to say something, surely something about doomed fates or something equally depressing, before rin beats them all to it. 

“you guys do know konoha doesn’t have a birthing center anymore, right?”

both heads snap to her direction.

“what?! how is that possible?”

“i don’t know the specifics,” she shrugs. “but tsunade-hime said something about low fertility rates because of all the stress from the war. eventually they had to close it down and convert it to a trauma center. at least for now.”

obito didn’t understand a single word that came out of her mouth. 

he was about to ask just exactly what the hell _fur tea lee tea_ was when she shut them up _again_ for probably the nth time that night alone.

“what would you do if i died today?”

_jesus christ._

this was getting out of hand.

* * *

rin learned a long, long time ago that being the only rose among the thorns in a barren land meant she had to act fast if she wanted to keep them blooming. 

kakashi thought about dark things all day and obito thought about ways to make him think of anything else. so rin was left to find a middle ground, even assume the role as mediator when minato-sensei wasn’t around, for two boys who dangled on both ends of the spectrum of sad and annoying.

she gave both of them levelled looks. with just a hint of curiosity and the right amount of apprehension that made it all too clear she wasn’t letting it go.

but kakashi had already recovered from the initial shock. the first time was merely a hoax, a trick of the wind that seemed to whisper what he thought he misheard. the lag in his judgement earlier simply attributed to being in the presence of two people he’d learned not to hold anything against anymore.

rin was trying something today. 

three could play at that game.

only obito was clearly behind every basic interrogation trick they were all taught with at school. he made for an embarrassingly pitiful captive, especially because he wore his heart on his sleeve and laid all his cards out in the open. 

like right now, when he didn’t know if he should glare daggers or be offended or worry about something else entirely. the gears in his head were on full display on his face and kakashi could tell he was growing more distressed. 

before he had the chance to pacify what he could only tell was growing into another one of his dramatic tantrums, rin startles them by saying something he never would have expected.

“i had a dream.”

they look at her then, as in _really_ look, because of the sullen tone she suddenly took on and how her face has abandoned the playful lilt it had earlier and replaced it with something far more somber, even a little sad.

“we were all a little older,” she starts, looking down at the space between them. “or at least you two were, i don’t think i really saw myself but i could tell it was me. it was like i was looking in from the outside, kind of hovering in-between, you know?”

they don’t, but she finally wasn’t talking about death, so they let her continue.

“you were a lot taller in there, kakashi. you too, obito. i didn’t think you would both grow so tall. i mean, minato-sensei keeps telling you guys if you keep misbehaving you won’t grow beyond five feet, so i guess i believed it. but that’s not the weirdest thing. in my dream you both had the sharingan! isn’t that exciting?” she looks up at them then, expecting to be met with the same level of enthusiasm.

all she finds is a frown on kakashi’s face and a look of bewilderment in obito’s eyes. “i unlock the sharingan?”

“yes!” she turns to obito, glad someone is at least a little reciprocative. “you both do! i think because of that you guys grew closer. i saw you walk the village together, eat together, train together, went to the memorial stone together - at one point you guys even lived in one place.”

obito joins kakashi in sporting an equally disgusted frown. 

rin only rolls her eyes. “as if you already don’t do everything together now. at least in my dream, the kakashi and obito there were proud of their friendship. you could do well learning from them, you know –”

“how do i get the sharingan?” 

but evidently, kakashi had other plans.

she visibly deflates. a stark contrast from the animated tone she took on a second ago, this one was more subdued. “i was confused about that too. i wasn’t sure how either because they only came in bits and pieces with no specific timeline. but there was one moment, in the graveyard, when you both removed your hitai-ate, that i knew then.”

she looks at them hard one by one – lingering just a little while on obito – as if she was trying to gather confidence for what she was about to say next.

“you both only had one eye, the sharingan. i didn’t see it during the other times because wearing it like that is normal, especially since kakashi is practically covered all the time, so i couldn’t have known. it wasn’t until minato-sensei joined you both and said something odd that confirmed my hunch.”

she takes a deep breath and continues. “he said fugaku told him he wasn’t happy with what obito did, but it was out of their hands now. they weren’t going to meddle, but they weren’t going to help either. i assume this was about the sharingan training – for kakashi, because, well, he’s not uchiha. do you understand?”

kakashi takes a moment to process this. 

even if it was hypothetical, he could look at it as immersion training because things were unpredictable in their line of work. 

although he had a particularly hard time wrapping his mind around him having the sharingan; because if he knew anything about the uchiha, it was that their eyes came before themselves. for someone of their clan to give their most prized possession to someone not even remotely related to them was unspeakable and surely unprecedented. 

obito was just an entirely different breed.

and also a below-average moron.

it was clear he still didn’t piece together the information he was served on a literal platter, rin even made sure to use easy words, because his brows were furrowed so low it looked like seagulls and his face contorted in what can only be seen as someone in deep contemplation.

kakashi decides to take him out of his misery.

“you gave me your sharingan, idiot.”

a beat.

cricket sounds.

another second passes, then another, probably going on five seconds now.

then, as if on cue, the uchiha snaps out of it. pointing an accusing finger and mock-laughing in disbelief as he yells out, “ _as if!_ over my dead body! nothing will ever make me want to give you something i’ve been waiting all my years to have! no way, absolutely not a single way forever and ever i’d do something like that, for _bakakashi_ nonetheless!”

kakashi expected _some_ denial, but not the outrageous amount he just heard. he’s almost offended. “well i don’t really want it either!”

obito sneers. “good! you couldn’t handle it anyway!”

rin knows this could turn into something more than just imagine scenarios, with the contents of her harmless dream bleeding out into real-life consequences. 

she only told them about it in hopes of nudging their hot-and-cold friendship into one that is decidedly more warm, for both their sakes.

because if she was being honest, the kakashi and obito she saw in her dreams had something between them that could move the very earth if they wanted – something about their close-knit relationship and easy companionship told her the sharingan wasn’t the only thing they shared.

but she wasn’t in the least bit jealous, because she knew her kakashi and obito could very well be that, maybe already are that - all they needed was the right push.

obviously today was not that day. maybe some other time.

she summons all the blind faith minato-sensei trusted her with when he told her to deal with them whenever he couldn’t.

“yeah yeah, you’re both very macho and strong. can you cut it out now? we have a mission in the morning and i’m not healing either of your wounds.”

* * *

when the sun finally peaked out from the horizon, they set out for the gate.

rin walked ahead of them, mentally taking notes of the supplies in her bag. kakashi and obito weren’t far behind, still nursing some lingering tension between them whenever they got into an argument. they’ll get over it, they always do.

halfway through their quiet walk, obito suddenly halts in his steps. like he suddenly remembered something. 

“wait, rin, where were you in all this? in your dream?”

she looks back at them from her shoulder and smiles sadly. 

“remember that grave you both kept visiting? i looked at the tombstone – it was mine."


End file.
